Aid for fuel oil: Béchu justifies a "deviation from the climatic course" to avoid "social reefs"

The Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu defended Friday, September 16 new aid to consumers of fossil fuels, this time for the French who heat themselves with fuel oil, justifying a "deviation" from the climate trajectory in order to avoid "reefs social".

"Fossil fuels are primarily responsible for global warming, so the sooner we get out of it the better we are," said the minister on RTL. "But we can sometimes show subtle nuances and, the priority this year, as it has been judged, in particular by Parliament where the political forces are diverse, is to consider that support for purchasing power deserves to be a little behind on certain climatic elements".

The minister was questioned about aid voted by Parliament this summer, of up to 200 euros and which will be paid from November to around half of French people who heat themselves with fuel oil, i.e. 1,4 million people, according to the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal on Thursday.

"I plead that from the moment we have a clear course, we can make a few deviations, if we realize that we have social reefs, to avoid there too setting the French against each other" , continued Mr. Béchu, provided that "these one-off aids" do not become "counterproductive signals".

“Aid for fuel oil was imposed by the coalition of oppositions. We are in the process of implementing it, by integrating wood pellets from those who heat themselves with pellets in particular, because there are had a price explosion," he said. According to him, "if we only help those who use fossil fuels by not giving a hand to those who, with the same income levels, have already chosen more environmentally friendly modes , we're sending the wrong signal into the wrong signal".

Mr. Béchu also spoke out against daily environmental "controversies", especially on private jets. "If we take things from the small end of the telescope, whether we take advantage of it to hunt for the rich or, on the contrary, to try to pit the French against each other, we are going against this trajectory. climate", lambasted the minister, while calling for everyone to take their part.

"Just because the apartment next door is burning with bigger flames doesn't mean you don't start putting yours out," he said.